


Take A Break

by Daniela_is_not_amused



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alive Starks (ASoIaF), Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Arya Stark-centric, Cute, Gen, Happy Starks (ASoIaF), Jon Snow is Not Called Aegon, Jon Snow is Not a Targaryen, Jon Snow is a Good Sibling, Jon Snow is a Stark, Jon Snow-centric, Minor Catelyn Tully Stark/Ned Stark, Minor Jon Snow/Ygritte, Protective Jon Snow, Protective Siblings, Sibling Bonding, Sort Of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-22
Updated: 2019-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-26 17:06:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,315
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21521797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daniela_is_not_amused/pseuds/Daniela_is_not_amused
Summary: The first thing Jon noted when he entered the base floor was a crumpled pack of Cheetos. There were only three people Jon knew who even liked Cheetos, an anomaly in its existence yes, and the young man was pretty sure that none of them would throw a crumpled Cheetos cover in the middle of the floor.Or that any of them would ever set foot into his flat without warning him or upsetting Ghost or Ygritte, really.
Relationships: Hot Pie & Arya Stark, Jon Snow & Arya Stark, Jon Snow & Ygritte, Jon Snow/Ygritte
Kudos: 39





	Take A Break

**Author's Note:**

> English is not my first language. Not beta-read. All mistakes are mine.
> 
> Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.

The first thing Jon noted when he entered the base floor was a crumpled pack of Cheetos. There were only three people Jon knew who even liked Cheetos, an anomaly in its existence yes, and the young man was pretty sure that none of them would throw a crumpled Cheetos cover in the middle of the floor.

Or that any of them would ever set foot into his flat without warning him or upsetting Ghost or Ygritte, really.

“Ghost, who’s our junk thrasher?” he asked even as he conveniently moved around the cover, quickly petting the gigantic dog sleeping next to him, and started towards his floor.

“That would be the she-wolf.” Ygritte replied, emerging from their kitchen, and Jon raised an eyebrow at her in surprise but didn’t falter as he got into the hallway.

“Hmmm, Arya’s here,” Jon mused with a confused expression and Ygritte shot him an alert look.

“Did we hear about anything from Winterfell?” Ygritte asked with the grudging concern she had adopted after the inclusion of the teenager into her own circle. She liked Arya the best, when it came to Jon’s family and was silently thankful for her constant support but she was still, in Ygritte’s own words, a ‘little rich girl’.

“Well, no, Winterfell seems to be intact and everyone’s alive as of today,” Jon shrugged and tilted his head back to shoot Ygritte a bland look, “Think it’s about the scholarship?”

“I dunno, the kid seems pretty set in that area,” Ygritte offered and Jon nodded thoughtfully. Arya was, by far, one of the smartest of the Stark siblings, even though she liked to pretend she didn’t care about her studies. Everyone was sure she’d get into her dream University.

“Let’s find out then,” he quipped and strode into the living room when the hallway came to a stop, his girlfriend hot on his heels.

The sight that greeted them upon entering their living room though was pretty strange. There was a lump on the couch, a lump covered in grey, sword-patterned blankets and a high school kid sitting on the companion chair, furiously typing on a laptop with one hand as the other rummaged into a crinkling Cheetos packet.

“So you’re the junk thrasher,” Jon commented and raised his eyebrows when the kid jerked pretty violently and sent orange balls of fluff flying everywhere.

“Shit!” the kid exclaimed and looked at his laptop that was almost falling down and scrambled to catch it, smearing it with orange dust. Jon winced a bit sympathetically but stood stock still.

“Shit shit, hi, ummm, sorry,” strange kid with cheeto fingers said and shook his head as thought rejecting a thought before continuing, “Arya, you, shit.”

“Not really. Jon, me, shit,” Jon corrected and pointed to himself before looking away and glancing at the lump on his couch, “What’s that?”

“Oh! Yeah, that’s Arya’s-”

“Right,” Jon said with a skeptical glance at the bumbling kid before walking forward and poking the lump with his index finger.

“Hey, hey, Arya, c’mon, come outta your cocoon caterpillar,” Jon poked again and gestured at the other kid to help. That got the boy into motion and he came forward to shake Arya with renewed force.

“Wha- What the fu- Hey, Jon!” Arya got up with bleary eyes that blinked fast to try and become alert, looking like a bundled puppy that got entangled in blankets.

“Cool blanket,” Jon quipped before taking a step back and looking between Arya and his friend, “Though I’m surprised about its location and, well, yours too. What’re you doing here?”

“Nothing,” Arya said and Jon caught the tad too quick reply suspiciously, “Nothing, just, you said I could come down here when, uh, you know, I wanted to?”

Jon knew a lie when he saw one. He had learnt to identify it quite closely and precisely, being part of one of the most important families in the country, even if unwanted by most.

‘No’, he thought and pushed back that thought, ‘focus on Arya’.

“Sure,” he said calmly with a casual shrug and eyed the other boy, “Well, I guess you and your buddy can just stay here for a while. I gotta go get changed. You guys want anything to eat?”

“No, no it’s -”

“Pizza sounds good”

Arya shot a dry look at her friend but Jon just snorted in amusement at the kid’s answer and nodded.

“Pizza sounds good,” he nodded and placed the order on his phone before slipping out to take a shower and change. Something told him that he would need to be more comfortable for a long night ahead.

* * *

“So..”

“Mhm?” Arya hummed around her pizza crust and Jon looked up from his own slice, eyes landing on Arya and his friend, a boy by the nickname ‘Hot Pie’.

“How’s school?” he offered and rolled his eyes when he got a pointedly disbelieving look from Arya, “Yeah, okay, it was a lousy attempt anyway. But hey, you wanna spill what’s going on?”

“What’s going on? Nothing’s going on,” Arya mumbled around her pizza bite and carefully avoided looking at Jon. With a raised eyebrow, Jon turned to stare at ‘Hot Pie’ pointedly.

“I will give you an all pass to Stark HQ if you tell me what’s screwed up,” he said and Arya’s eyes shot up but Hot Pie promptly opened his mouth.

“Arya flunked physics,” Hot Pie said immediately and Arya shot him an utterly betrayed look that Hot Pie returned with a defensive shrug, “What? It’s the Stark HQ! If you were me, you’d have sold out too!”

Jon was… surprised. That was the last thing he had been expecting. Scratch that, it wasn’t even on the list of things he was expecting. He knew smart people and Arya was one of the smartest he could find in the vicinity. The kid was practically a sponge and Jon, with his own reluctance for being a mentor to literally anyone in this world, had found it easy to take on the role for him. Not to mention, Arya had never have a problem with aceing her classes. Things didn’t seem to add up, he decided and looked at Arya.

“That’s…” Jon searched for an appropriate word and Arya shot him a narrowed glare.

“Look, just drop it, okay? It’s fine,” she huffed and Jon frowned a bit.

“No, it’s not. It’s an anomaly,” he scoffed and Arya stiffened, making Jon re-evaluate his words and explain better, “I mean, you’re clearly on part with a genius brain and there’s really no way you’d fail physics, c’mon. If anything I’m surprised you’re even taking exams at high school anymore. That’s practically like counting cards when playing against Rickon.”

Arya blinked at him and Jon snapped his mouth shut but shrugged in deference to his words. He noted that Hot Pie looked stunned for a minute, pizza halfway into his mouth before he smirked with an impressed look and continued munching.

“That’s… huh,” Arya cleared her throat and Jon felt the awkwardness settle in the air. Jon felt the odd urge to scratch the nape of his neck and decided to stuff his mouth instead.

“Friday you said that you were at The Wall?” Arya said after a few minutes of silence and Jon nodded, thankful that the silence had broken.

“Yeah, meeting with the Wildlings,” he said on a swallow and smirked at the interested look on Arya’s face, “Yeah, the same Wildlings you’re thinking about.”

“Awesome,” she said with the first look of excitement since Jon had found her on the couch, so Jon went on a ramble about possible political alliances and cultural ceremonies he had taken part in. Hot Pie didn’t butt into the conversation much except for dropping random information that was in no way related to the Wildings but Jon liked the enthusiasm of the kid and they talked through their large pizza.

It was late when Hot Pie left, an all pass in hand as promised and he shot Jon a dorky salute that Jon replied with a pointed look before grinning. Arya didn’t look like she was leaving, so Jon didn’t ask much about it and walked back inside after having left Hot Pie in Ygritte’s safe hands, who had agreed to drive him home so they could have some privacy.

“Hey, you want a lift back home or you’re gonna take the bus?” Jon asked as he stretched and padded by the couch towards the kitchen to grab a drink of water.

“I -uh,” Arya hesitated and Jon eyed her calmly as he drank his water, waiting for Arya to complete her sentence, “I was hoping I could… crash here for tonight?”

“Really,” Jon observed and eyed Arya’s nervous body language, “Is Catelyn okay with it?”

Arya nodded quickly but Jon maintained his ‘don’t bullshit me look’ and the kid sighed before shrugging. 

“She, um, she might not know I’m here?” Arya said with the sentence ending in a question and Jon stared at her for a minute before huffing out a chuckle that led to Arya grinning sheepishly.

“So she might very well be hounding the cops to look for you,” Jon shook his head and walked over from the kitchen to the couch and offered Arya a bottle of water.

Arya looked at the bottle with momentary surprise before taking it but not drinking. “She’s used to it by now,” he said with a shrug and clarified at Jon’s surprised look, “Not the… failing thing. The late night out thing.”

“Ah” Jon nodded in understanding and nudged Arya’s leg to make her scoot before sitting down beside her, “So, wanna tell me who screwed you over?”

“How’d you know somebody screwed me over?” Arya asked with a surprised blink and Jon scoffed with an eye-roll.

“Arya, please,” he said in an unimpressed tone, “like I said, you failing at physics is an anomaly. Besides, if you’d really failed, you would have been at home, working extra hours to make up for it. Seeing that you’re moping all over my couch -”

“I’m not moping,” Arya retorted but Jon spoke over her.

“-moping in extreme all over my couch, clearly, somebody screwed you over,” Jon said and looked at Arya with an open look, “And seeing how you came here, and I’m not really good with silence, you might as well tell me.”

When Arya looked hesitant, Jon softened a bit.

“Tell you what,” he offered, “You tell me what happened and leave out the who. If you want, I can tell you some of my worst days at King’s Landing Uni.”

“I doubt you ever failed,” Arya snorted and Jon shook his head. Catelyn would have him killed if he went to King’s Landing just to embarrass her family, or, worst of all, Robb, who was attending it with him at the time. 

“It’s not just about academics sometimes,” he said quietly and Arya stared at him for a moment before sighing.

“There’s this teacher,” he began and Jon kept quiet as he heard Arya talk about a teacher who was insecure about him being smarter than the guy and finding solutions and methods that the guy didn’t agree with. It was the typical case of a hurt ego and Jon felt himself sighing when Arya spoke about how the guy had flunked him when he refused to stick to the prescribed solutions alone and tried something on his own.

“So basically your professor’s a dick,” Jon commented at the end of it and Arya nodded, albeit with a small grin.

“Well, basically I officially flunked,” she amended and ran a tired hand through his hair, “And now Mother’s gonna be upset and I’m gonna get fewer hours to do my… well, thing. And then they’re gonna rethink my scholarship and I know that Father can pay for it but it’s still so dumb and-”

“Breathe,” Jon said firmly and caught Arya’s gaze in a calm but confident one of his own, “Seriously, kid, just breathe.”

“I just… I’m kinda tired,” the teenager said in a small voice and Jon remembered the endless times when he had been in a similar position, having the burning need to prove himself to some unknown authority and feeling rejected and small for his past. It was unfair, he knew that, but it was also the reality they lived in. Jon didn’t believe in sugar-coating things for a kid who was bound to face similar assholes later in life. It never helped, he knew that.

“Hey, tell you what, you take the guest room instead of the couch,” he said and Arya frowned at him.

“But I don’t - I should call Mother and -”

“Yeah, I’ll take care of it, chill,” Jon waved it off with a hand and patted Arya’s shoulder, “Go get some sleep. Room’s to the left, second door.”

“Jon, I-”

“I’ll take care of it. Go on:”

Jon watched Arya go and stayed on the couch for a long time after it. In the end, he pulled out his phone and settled down for a long chat with a guaranteed panicked Cathelin Stark. She yelled at him for not calling her sooner, told him she demanded he bring Arya back but, in the end, Father stepped in and told him to watch over Arya for the night. He promised to drop Arya off in the morning and that was it.

If he checked up on Arya physically once, and through the security cameras twice during the night, well, nobody had to know.

Not even Arya, who made it a point to crash in his guest room from then on, instead of the couch, despite Catelyn’s complaints. Of course, some things never changed and Hot Pie still left Cheetos covers on the floor.

Jon was happy with letting Ygritte handle that bit of pseudo parenting. 

**Author's Note:**

> Feedback is appreciated.


End file.
